Temletts banjos

[skip sail]

first time posting,so i may mess this up!

some of the most beautiful english banjos i have seen are the ones made by Temlett and his son.i have owned a few,one of which i traded with bob brozman(he used it on a recent album,playing a blues piece!)

I will try and post some photos of a couple i kept,hope i can figure it out.

[thereallyniceman]

That is one beautiful banjo. Do you have any close ups of the engraving on the metal hoop? I have never owned a Temlett banjo, do they sound as good as they look?

Very nice indeed!

[Mike Moss]

Oh wow. That's an amazing-looking 7-stringer. Was it originally fretless?

[skip sail]

no,its an original fretted 7 string,heres a 5 string Temletts fretless

[skip sail]

the 7 string is amazing,snakewood neck,40 brackets,12+3/4 pot. the highest grade english banjo i have owned

[thereallyniceman]

OH MY,I thought that it was a beautiful banjo before and now you have posted these new pictures it is more amazing than I imagined. I have always been impressed by "over the top" instruments. William J Ball didn't like MOP and advocated that "simple"is best.  ... Not for me! If a banjo sounds good, what is wrong with it looking good too?  Ask S S Stewart, you can hardly see the wood for the MOP and carving on his high end instruments. I like a bit of "Bling" and instruments don't come with more "bling" than your beautiful Temlett, even 40 brackets and machined tension hooks too!  I wonder if the pegs are original though?

What a pity that it has too many strings  ;-)

Thanks for posting, it is a really beautiful banjo.

[watty]

Greetings! I just landed on this site courtesy of Foaotmad.

Last year a friend brought her grandmother's banjo for me to see. It arrived in a very old gun-type case and didn't look at all promising. Out popped an 1895 temlett in absolutely original condition. Not as ornate as this one, but I would say that the tuners in the photos above are probably original as the style of beading matches the tailpiece on her old banjo. Anyway- with three black strings and a saggy old skin - it sounded utterly amazing. It'll go soon to a very good luthier (Bill Kelday) with a view to some non-invasive adjustments. Can't remember the model name, but it had also been a seven string model (though the neck is not really wide enough for 6 playing strings (i suspected the extra holes indicated that someone had fitted cam-style scruggs tuners until i read the post above) and had been given to the gran as a 21st birthday present in 1926. It was originally fretless - unfortunately the frets are out of sync with the position markers, and it'll be a good idea to have them removed - only one of the mops is damaged and it would be easily replaced. A very nice discovery, but no idea of an insurance valuation.

Smashing pictures - i bet your banjo plays and sounds well.

[skip sail]

My fretless temletts had frets poorly installed in the wrong positions,a common theme on these beautiful old instruments, dagnabit.